Thursday, November 13, 2008

Guest worker scheme expensive

The Rudd Government has a plan to bring thousands of Pacific Islanders to Australia as "guest workers" on farms.

Yesterday it was reported in the Herald Sun that the scheme will have to be propped up by taxpayers:

Taxpayers will pay almost $10,000 for every unskilled Pacific Islander brought to Australia under a new guest worker scheme.

This news, sourced from the Government's own economic update, isn't surprising. I reported back in May that the Department of Immigration had warned about the costs of a guest worker scheme:

The department argues further that the level of management and extent of controls necessary to ensure employer and employee compliance with program conditions, and to safeguard seasonal workers from exploitation, would render such a scheme prohibitively expensive.